Teddie Roosevelt once said...
“The man should have youth and strength who seeks adventure in the wide, waste spaces of the earth, in the marshes, and among the vast mountain masses, in the northern forests, amid the streaming jungles of the tropics, or on the deserts of sand or of snow. He must long greatly for the lonely winds that blow across the wilderness and for sunrise and sunset over the rim of the empty world . . . He can journey through the northern forests, the home of the giant moose, the forests of fragrant and murmuring life in summer, the iron-bound and melancholy forests of winter . . . ”
“After about ten minutes, the trail approached the little stream; then the moose suddenly appeared, rushing towards us at a slashing trot, its hair ruffled and tossing his head. Arthur Lirette, who is one of the game wardens of the Tourilli Club [as well as one of Roosevelt’s guides], called out to me to shoot, or the moose would do us mischief. In a last effort to frighten it, I fired over its head, but it paid no heed to this and rushed the stream at us.
As they approached the shore, the moose became very agitated and aggressive with “hair bristled.” The three men made noise, pounded on the side of the canoe, and paddled up and down the lake for at least an hour as the bull followed their every move and made threatening advances whenever they neared the shoreline.
By late afternoon, the moose finally melted into the bush, and it seemed as though the coast was clear. The men quickly landed the canoe and started portaging across to the other waterway. Suddenly, as they neared a small stream, the moose appeared out of nowhere and charged.“Arthur again called ‘Tirez [shoot], monsieur, tirez, vite, vite, vite’, and I fired into the moose’s chest, when he was less than twenty feet away, coming full tilt at us, grunting, shaking his head, his ears back and his hair brindled; the shot stopped him; I fired into him again; both shots were fatal; he recrossed the little stream and fell to a third shot; but when we approached, he rose grunting and started towards us. I killed him. If I had not stopped him, he would certainly have killed one or more of our party; and at twenty feet I had to shoot as straight as I knew how or he would have reached us.
”Roosevelt had been hunting with his trusty Springfield .30-’06 bolt action. Since he technically had broken the law by shooting a second moose for which he had no license, he filed an affidavit with the proper authorities in Quebec describing the incident so he could clear his name. In part the affidavit read:
“If I had not stopped him (the moose), he would certainly have killed one or more of our party. I had done everything possible in my power to scare him away for an hour and a quarter, and I solemnly declare that I killed him only when it was imperatively necessary, in order to prevent the loss of one or more of our own lives, and I make this solemn declaration conscientiously, believing it to be true, and knowing that it is of the same force and effect as if made under oath, and by virtue of the Canada Evidence Act 1893.”
Roosevelt was cleared of any wrongdoing and given possession of the rack. The incident had shaken him to the core, and he told several friends he hoped nothing like that ever happened again.
